OF TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER IN PHILIPPINE UNIVERSITIES THE UNIVERSITY OF SAN CARLOS EXPERIENCE
MEETING THE CHALLENGES
OF TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER IN PHILIPPINE UNIVERSITIES THE UNIVERSITY OF SAN CARLOS EXPERIENCE
By Danilo B. Largo, PhD
Director, Office of Research / Manager, USC ITSO
Photo © USC-ITSO
What used to be a domain of copyright as the most important intangible asset in most, if not all, universities in the Philippines, owing to a common mindset in the academe of‘ publish-or-perish’, the capacity-building initiatives of the Intellectual Property of the Philippines in the framework of the Innovation and Technology Support Office( ITSO), is starting to pay off with the gradual shift in the faculty members’ mindset to“ patent-publish-and-profit”, where the heart of IP has shifted from mostly written works of literature and artistic works, to inventions that can solve society’ s problems. Indeed what was unthinkable in the University of San Carlos just a few years ago, before the ITSO was born, where technology transfer was but a foreign concept, where the university’ s only revenue source is tuition fees, is now starting to take shape in the form of commercialized products with patent protection. The University of San Carlos is in an exciting time of its IP commercialization. It started first in the R & D unit of the Chemical Engineering Department – the BioProcess Engineering Research Center( BioPERC)- which houses some of the more advanced, state-of-the-art laboratory in the university, designed to perform chemical analysis of natural and fermentation products. Its research focus on waste and energy has led to the development of a number of inventions on process engineering, geared towards addressing one of the most pressing issues of Cebu’ s solid waste management. BioPERC’ s R & D sees the need to prioritize the treatment of sanitary wastes and mango wastes which is a major component of Metro Cebu’ s daily industrial wastes. Taking out this fraction from the bulk wastes and converting them into useful products will mean a significant savings not only for the local government units( LGU) in terms man-hours in handling and collecting solid wastes but also for companies that need to pay taxes to the LGU. As well, the new products created from these wastes create livelihood opportunities for many people.
ITSOMAGazine 5